During the 200th episode of Chicago Fire, after nearly 10 years and 200 episodes, Jesse Spencer‘s character Matthew Casey made a life-altering decision to move to Oregon, which led to him being written off of the series.
The character Matt Casey decided in the episode prior that he was going to leave Chicago because he felt committed to look after the Darden boys for a three-year commitment.
Spencer explained during a press conference why he made the tough decision to leave the show.
“This was a difficult decision because I have loved the show from the start but there are other things that I would like to do in the future, and there’s some family that I need to take care of,” Spencer explained. “I was marking off these milestones and looking to the future … and it was time.”
Derek Haas isn’t giving up hope that Casey will return.
Of course, showrunner Derek Haas wasn’t giving up hope that Casey will return stating during the same press conference, “We’re going to keep it alive.… This is a three-year commitment that Casey’s making but hopefully we’ll see him before those three years are done.”
Recently Haas told CinemaBlend about what’s in store for our Chicago Fire couple following the winter break. “I think that [the relationship] is going well off screen,” said Haas. “She’s definitely gonna go see him at some point in the second half of the season. We don’t have all of those i’s dotted and t’s crossed yet, but she’s gonna go see him. And then hopefully, if everything breaks my way, we can get Jesse to come back and at least do an episode or two towards the end of the season, so that would be nice. But for now, yes, they’re doing great.”
The development is slightly surprising considering Jesse Spencer’s departure from Chicago Fire and the difficulties Brett and Casey have been running into in staying connected.
No guarantees.
Derek Haas didn’t guarantee that everything will continue going well or that Brett will be satisfied with her trip whenever that happens, but he also didn’t give fans anything to be particularly nervous about.
Of course, there is no guarantee Spencer will physically be in that particular episode or if he will lend only his voice as he has done in the 200th episode. Fans were hoping Casey would return to be Brett’s date to Severide and Stella’s wedding, BUT in the fall finale Severide was having a difficult time reaching Stella and the episode was left with a cliffhanger as Stella was waiting for Severide in his apartment. We have no way of knowing if there will even be a wedding between the two, let alone whether or not Brett and Casey will make a public appearance as a couple at the event.
Speaking with press ahead of the 200th episode back in October, the showrunner Derek Haas said:
“Here’s the thing: I never try to predict what’s going to happen production-wise, but we’re in the camp of whenever Jesse wants to come do an episode with us, we will move mountains and earth to make that happen. So we’ve been talking, we’ve been talking, we’ve got some ideas of what that would be.”
Currently, Jesse Spencer is not slated to return as a series regular, however fans and apparently Derek Haas are holding onto hope that he will!
Chicago Fire will return with the midseason premiere on Wednesday, January 5 in its usual 9 p.m. ET time slot on NBC, between the Chicago Med return at 8 p.m. ET and the Chicago P.D. return at 10 p.m. ET.
Chicago Fire executive producers include Dick Wolf, Derek Haas, Todd Arnow, Andrea Newman, Michael Gilvary, Michael Brandt, Reza Tabrizi, Arthur W. Forney, Peter Jankowski.
Chicago Fire is produced by Universal Television, a division of Universal Studio Group, in association with Wolf Entertainment. Filmed at Cinespace Chicago Film Studio.
